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Boy scouts Nate Combs, left and Stephen Boyko.
Contributed by Ron Beeber.
PENTWATER — Triggered by the Pentwater Service Club, and facilitated by the Community Foundation for Oceana County (CFOC), Boy Scout Troop 1145 raised the final $4,000 needed, so the troop can take a rugged, 12-day trek at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico this summer.
“We raised $11,000 the past two years doing various service projects,” said Troop 1145 Scoutmaster Rick Quinn. “But two weeks ago, we were $4,000 short of the funds needed to send every scout and mentor in our contingent.”
“When the Service Club heard about this,” said its president, Ron Christians, “our members were quick to okay $1,000 of our funds for a challenge grant to attract the remaining dollars needed.”
“I can’t express how much we appreciate everything the service club, the community foundation and the news media have done in our behalf,” added Quinn. “I’m humbled by the generosity of the club and its members, other organizations, and individuals in the community whose financial support has made it possible to send everyone.”
“The service club is very grateful for the professional and expedient manner in which the fundraising effort was coordinated by the Community Foundation,” Christians said.
Because of the tight deadline faced by Troop 1145, contributors responded very quickly by mailing checks and giving online through the oceana foundation website.
“Some very heartwarming notes were attached to contributions,” said CFOC Executive Director Tammy Carey.
“One contributor wrote: ‘My brothers were scouts and my father always supported the scouting movement. Dad passed away in September, and the wife of one of my brothers died recently. There’s not a better tribute we can provide than to help the youth in our community — just as both of them did throughout their lives.’”
Continued Carey, “Another contributor wrote: ’The experience they (the scouts and their mentors) will have (on the trek) is immense.’”
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